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Brooklyn , New York -LRB- VICE.COM -RRB- -- The first time I went to Libya , in 2010 , I was arrested just two days into my trip . Filming a documentary for VICE , I was detained for shooting where the authorities thought I should n't , beginning endless rounds of questions , emphatic yelling and head-shaking incredulity at my claims of innocence -- and , of course , the requisite implications that I was a spy . When I was finally released , I swore I would never return to the Great Socialist People 's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya . But that promise was quickly broken , and I found myself back in the country almost exactly a year later , in the midst of a chaotic and violent revolution .

My second trip to Libya consisted of traveling from the Egyptian border to Benghazi and then onto the front lines in Misurata , embedding with a few different rebel groups along the way . I was shocked by how young many of them were . Barely past puberty and fighting with whatever they could find -LRB- one guy had a spear gun -RRB- , they displayed so much heroism and courage that I would tear up while talking to them . One rebel I spoke with had left the hospital earlier that night -- despite having lost a leg -- so that he could get back to the front lines . He was offered a flight to Germany and a new prosthetic limb by an NGO , but instead snuck out of the hospital to rejoin his comrades .

But the big question looming over everything was : `` Why are they fighting ? ''

Everyone I asked -- bankers , shop clerks , students , construction workers , oil engineers and ex-Gaddafi loyalists -- offered the same answer : `` Freedom . '' It was like the end of Braveheart every time a rebel looked into my eyes and said it . One 16-year-old told me , `` I will die so the others can at least breathe free air . '' Heady stuff for a teenager , especially when most of the rebels are n't old enough to have known a political system other than Gaddafism . Risking your life for freedom is one thing . But risking it for the concept of freedom is something else entirely .

See the rest of The Rebels of Libya at VICE.COM

When we finally got to Misurata , it was surrounded by Gaddafi 's troops and only accessible by sea . We slowly made our way toward the front , stopping periodically to talk to rebels . One 15-year-old boy I met was preparing a Grad-missile truck for battle . Beaming , he wondered whether I could `` ask Clinton and Obama for new weapons '' so that they could beat Gaddafi and he could fulfill his dream of playing for the Miami Heat or the Dallas Mavericks . As we talked , it struck me how much had changed in such a short period . This was a different Libya than the one I experienced last year -- a completely new country .

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VICE embeds with rebel groups on the front lines in Libya

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Journalists were surprised by how young some rebels were

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When asked why they were fighting , `` freedom '' was the common answer